An immigration activist says the Republican Party lost any real chance of retaining the White House the day John McCain won the GOP primary.

William Gheen is president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, or ALIPAC. Throughout the presidential campaign, Gheen ardently refused to support John McCain because of the Arizona senator's continued support to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.

Gheen believes McCain was counting on GOP voters to march into the booths at the last minute, hold their noses, and elect him out of fear of Obama. He notes while many Republicans reluctantly made that choice, a significant group withheld their support or voted in opposition to McCain.

"Republicans lost the White House the day John McCain won the primary, and no issue cost him more than his unpopular stance on immigration issues. John McCain is for amnesty; so is Barack Obama," he explains. "It was like we had two Democrats running on several of the issues, so the end result was that Republicans showed up less, many more voted [for a] third party, and a lot of them went ahead and voted for Obama since McCain was matching him on issues such as the bailout and illegal immigration."

Many Republicans, according to Gheen, felt more betrayed by McCain's support for amnesty than Obama's because they would expect a Democrat to take that position.

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2
posted on 11/25/2008 2:57:13 PM PST
by rabscuttle385
("If this be treason, then make the most of it!" --Patrick Henry)

The illegal issue was really hot until McCain got the nomination and threw water on it. People are mad as hell about it and the GOP blew it by not selecting someone else. He probably didn’t get much of Hispanic voters in spite of his support and the rest of the downstream ticket was muted as a result.

If the Republican party wishes to remain a viable party, it is going to have to toss the idea of holding primaries in the manner it has. Allowing two to three million Republicans (and in some instances not even Republicans) to sellect our nominee before the rest of us even get a vote, is rediculous.

We keep getting lefty after lefty, and we wonder why Conservatism goes nowhere.

The RNC needs to pull it’s head out, clearly define what Conservatism is, educate not only our party members, but the populace at large, and otherwise start acting like it actually believes in it.

If it doesn’t, then say so and those of us who do support conservatism can go somewhere else.

This Democrat lite bull s—t is dead in the water.

9
posted on 11/25/2008 3:10:18 PM PST
by DoughtyOne
(Okay lefties... the problem with wanting something, is that you sometimes get it. Good luck now!)

Frankly I blame McCain's nomination on the early primary states that allowed crossover voting. I think Democrats picked McCain often enough that Guiliani, Romney & Huckabee couldn't get traction. Conservatives should have forced either Huckabee or Romney out early enough so that the other could have rebounded against McCain. 'Course if it were your guy forced out by party insiders you'd be pretty PO'ed.

For me it wasn’t so much teaching anyone a lesson. I just still have some standards left, and John McCain doesn’t rise to them. Besides, I know I can’t trust the guy to do anything other than to sell us out on issue after issue.

No thanks...

11
posted on 11/25/2008 3:12:21 PM PST
by DoughtyOne
(Okay lefties... the problem with wanting something, is that you sometimes get it. Good luck now!)

Republicans can hold ‘beauty contest’ primaries if they want, but the Part should hold caususes to determine who gets the delegates. That’s the only way the GOP can prevent the individual States from screwing with our nomination process.

RINOs like McCain cost us this election. McCain hates disagreeing with Democrats and that is exactly what a Republican presidential nominee HAS to do. I recently watched Reagan's old debates. He hit hard and smart.

And Congressional RINOs for years have been stabbing the Conservative cause in the back, undermining the very ideals that work.

It was the MSM that shoved McCain down our throats. They knew of all the candidates (save Paul), he was the most unelectable. Then they totally turned their backs on him to elevate their one, true choice. Brilliant, actually. Nefariously brilliant, but brilliant.

19
posted on 11/25/2008 3:20:26 PM PST
by Dionysius
(Jingoism is no vice.)

RNC needs to pull its head out, clearly define what Conservatism is, educate not only our party members, but the populace at large, and otherwise start acting like it actually believes in it. If it doesnt, then say so and those of us who do support conservatism can go somewhere else. This Democrat lite bull st is dead in the water.

Well said.

23
posted on 11/25/2008 3:57:11 PM PST
by calcowgirl
("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)

ACORN’s whole population, past and present, should be behind bars for life. (EVEN IF the past participants include Barry Obambi. Let him try to take the oath of office wearing an orange jumpsuit and leg irons. That would be a lovely picture!)

27
posted on 11/25/2008 4:12:28 PM PST
by dcwusmc
(We need to make government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.)

Though I held my nose and voted for Sarah Palin, I think the first statement is the correct one. ANY of the other candidates (aside from Huckleberry, Giuliani and Romney) would have made better candidates AND might have won.

29
posted on 11/25/2008 4:21:23 PM PST
by dcwusmc
(We need to make government so small that it can be drowned in a bathtub.)

>>Yes, McCain was a loser, but withholding votes so Obama was elected was not smart.<<

I very very reluctantly voted for McC, but if he had won, he would have pushed amnesty, and the voters (with partial justification) would have blamed the R party for the economy in 2010 and 2012. With BO as POTUS, he will need some luck to save the economy.

35
posted on 11/25/2008 8:29:56 PM PST
by ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas
(I want to "Buy American" but the only things for sale made in the USA are politicians)

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